Bits and pieces of my life. I am a lifelong Christian. I have been married for over 39 years to Stan. No children. We have 3 Italian Greyhounds: Persephone, Dresden & Capodimonte and a calico cat named Binky. We have 9 nieces/nephews and 9 grandnieces/nephews whom we love. My hobbies are genealogy, reading, digital scrapbooking, history, dogs, homemaking. This is a personal blog and not a business. I share what interests me and I am not selling anything or making a profit.

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..........Contact me at Mom25dogs@gmail.com.........

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Exodus 22

This morning I studied Exodus 22. We are still in the laws that God is giving Moses. It begins with the laws concerning the theft of private property. Then it goes on. These are the verses that stood out to me.

Exo 22:18 You shall not allow a sorceress to live.

Exo 22:19 Anyone lying with an animal shall surely be put to death.

Exo 22:20 One sacrificing to a god, except it is to Jehovah only, he shall be utterly destroyed.

Exo 22:21 You shall neither vex a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Exo 22:22 You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry. And My wrath shall become hot, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your sons fatherless.

Exo 22:25 If you lend money to one of My people who is poor beside you, you shall not be to him as a money-lender, neither shall you lay upon him interest.

After my study, these are my conclusions:

I. Sorcery, withcraft is a capital crime. Their work is the devil's work and not God's. In appealing to the devil , rather than God, it is making the devil the god of this world. Invocating, consulting, or employing spirits for any intent is iniquity, sin. These spirits are evil spirits, demons, no matter what they appear to be, or what they feel like. Those who call forth the devil or his spirits are practising idolatry and breaking God's laws. It is a capital punishment. Here are a few other scriptures that support this.

Deu 18:10-12 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, an observer of clouds, or a fortune-teller, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or one who calls to the dead. For all that do these things are an abomination to Jehovah. And because of these abominations Jehovah your God drives them out from before you.

Leviticus 19:26b You shall not divine, nor conjure spirits.

Lev 20:6-7 And the soul that turns to mediums, and to spirit-knowers, to go lusting after them, I will even set My face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. And you shall sanctify yourselves, and be holy. For I am Jehovah your God

Lev 20:27 A man also or woman that has a medium or that is a necromancer, shall surely be put to death. They shall stone them with stones. Their blood is on them.

1Ch 10:13-14 And Saul died for his sin which he committed against Jehovah, against the Word of Jehovah, which he did not keep, and also for seeking of a medium, to inquire, and inquired not of Jehovah. And He killed him and turned the kingdom to David the son of Jesse.

Isa 19:3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst of it, and I will destroy its wisdom. And they shall seek to idols, and to the enchanters, and to the mediums, and to the future-tellers.

Mal 3:5 And I will come near you to judgment. And I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those who extort from the hired laborer's wages, and turning away the widow, and the orphan, the alien, and not fearing Me, says Jehovah of Hosts.

Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are clearly revealed, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, fightings, jealousies, angers, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revelings, and things like these; of which I tell you before, as I also said before, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Rev 21:8 But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, will have their part in the Lake burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

Talking about heaven:Rev 22:14b-15 ...they may enter in by the gates into the city. But outside are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and makes a lie.

As you can see, God is very explicit in the Old and New Testament about the sin of occultism. Anything to do with fortune-telling, sorcery, witchcraft, channeling spirits, necromancing, palmistry, divination (reading tea leaves, tarot cards, etc), horoscopes, conjury, etc. He doesn't say that you can't read some future events; or that there are no such things as ghosts; or that a person can't channel spirits. He does say that it is evil, the spirits are evil spirits (demons), and we are not to consult them or use them in any way. It opens the door to great evil and is a sin, an abomination before God. It is practising the worst kind of idolatry and opens the door for satan to consume you.

II. Bestiality is also a capital offense. Anyone having sex with an animal is so perverted that they must be killed.

Leviticus 18:23, 29 And you shall not lie with any animal to defile yourself with it. And a woman shall not stand before an animal to lie down to it. It is a perversion... For whoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls who commit them shall be cut off from among their people.

Other sins level men with the beasts, but these sexual perversions sink them much lower. It is a horrible offense according to God's Word.

III. Idolatry. An idol is an image or anything used as an object of worship in place of the true God. Two of the Ten Commandments are "Thou shalt not have any other gods before me" and "Thou shalt not make to yourselves any graven image". Many idols were in forms such as statues, sculptures, pictures. The Bible describes the heathens and their idols such as Baal, Dagon, Asherah, etc. God dealt severely with the Israelites for leaving Him to worship the idols of the heathen nations around them. Of course, there are really no other gods...only in people's minds where they elevate something to be a thing of worship and pay obeisance to. We also know that people can worship things that aren't in a form. People can worship money, jobs, families, a place in society, a political leader, a sport, a famous person, etc. You can even worship yourself. Therefore an idol is anything that is elevated to the place of god in your life. If you sacrifice all your time, thought, energy, money on something, it has become your god. If it takes presidence over God, it is an idol. If it is your first priority, over and above God, it is an idol. If you expend your talents in it's service, it is your god. You are wasting your time, your money, your energy, your talents on a worthless god. And idolatry was a capital offense.

IV. Foreigners, strangers, aliens. We are not to take advantage of foreigners. We are not to oppress them, abuse them, hold them in contempt, look down on them. Any of us could, one day, be a foreigner in a strange land and we would need someone to be kind to us and help us out. They are strangers to our language, culture, and habits. We should be helpful to them so that they would desire to convert to our religion and begin to worship our God. If we are cruel, abusive and take advantage of them, they would never want to convert to our religion. To be ugly to others reflects badly on Jesus Christ and His gospel of salvation and may turn them away from His saving grace. It is sinful to take advantage of those who are vulnerable.

V. Widows and Orphans. These are the vulnerable in our society. God commands us to be careful in our dealings with them. We are not to take advantage of them, we are not to abuse, oppress, or afflict them. They don't have a husband or father to protect them, provide for them, and keep their needs and desires before him in his dealings with the world. They don't have a man between them and the world. They don't have that protective covering and loving shelter. So we are to be careful with these, who are most vulnerable. God mentions His care and attention to the widows and orphans many times in His Word, in the Old and New Testament. If we don't take care of them and they cry out to God, He will be their husband and father and will take on their cause. The abuser, the oppressor, will die!

VI. Again, God refers to a vulnerable part of society...the poor. We are not to lend money to the poor and expect interest in return. A Hebrew (aka Israelite, Jew) was not to lend to another Hebrew and exact interest if it put an undue strain on that borrower. Exorbitant interest is called usury and is a sin. Taking advantage of the poor like this is sinful and shameful.